New England B.S. Thread

Certainly is a drag

 

I escaped the cold in December. Spent a lot of the past 20 years working in the Carolinas and don't much like it there. Despise everything about Florida. So we went west rather than south. Phoenix has been 70s and bright sunshine every day this week (and most weeks this time of year). We eat all our meals out on the back patio by the pool and wear shorts to the grocery store. The lemons are ripening and I've been juicing and cooking with them. My oranges and grapefruit will come ripe in February / March. Much lower cost of living. Should have made the move years ago.

 

I moved to Raleigh for about 6 years. I enjoyed Raleigh well enough, but its blah. No mountains, no hills, etc... Weather is great and people were nice though. If I stayed down there I would have moved west to the Mountains outside of Asheville. I was actually planning on it, until married and stuff happened.

I would look at what @KDT is saying. I'd avoid CALI. But otherwise, out west seems really to be a nice place. People in Utah/AZ/CO have all been super nice, tons of stuff to do if you like being outside and its BEAUTIFUL. Now you can always get stuck in one of the flat areas and it wouldn't be much different from Raleigh, besides maybe a little warmer, but if you are going to make a big move somewhere, I'd go where the action (outdoors not city) is.

I've also noticed, that in those big open areas out there...you feel different. You feel a freedom that I've not found out here in the east, or really almost any place else I've traveled. Its just so big and open that anything seems possible and you can do anything you ever wanted, and no one would even be there to know you did it.

Sure you gotta find a job and that might be hard in the big wide opens...but if I could do it all over again, I'd have headed to CO/UT/MT instead of NC.

 

I work manufacturing. It's usually actually easier to find jobs out in the middle of nowhere where factory space is cheap and skilled engineering is hard to come by.

I will say after having lived in and then next to a city (providence), yeah there's not as much wide open trails and expanses but it has its upsides. At least here, I've found somewhat unused trails I can take my dog and let her run off leash, in the middle of cities that's nice. It's not NYC, Boston, etc. Those would e too much. Have yet to go down and check it out. We'll see.

Visited Austin, I liked that too, but it was a little too big for my city preferences, and it's wicked expensive. And we don't have a plant there, so I'd have to relocate with a new company. Which is possible, sure, but it's also a lot faster with my current company. Added bonus, they'll buy my house if it doesn't sell, and makes my life as a seller super easy if we go that route.

My wife's a city girl. I'm a country boy. As in the extremes of the two, give me a few acres in the woods with nobody else around and I'm happy. She likes to be city center downtown hustle bustle. That's why providence works for us. The middle of downtown, outside of commuting hours, is 10 minutes from "normal" neighborhoods and such. We're 10 minutes outside providence, have a 1200 sqft ranch, and 1/3 acre. We lucked out, most plots are a lot smaller than ours, but still. This is not something you could even find in, say, Boston, Austin, etc, let alone afford without old money. So it's a nice medium that's hard to want to give up, but we really hate the cold.

 

Not against the southwest. There's a big American airlines facility in Miami that's tempting all the time but out in Phoenix there's a big Honeywell aero facility too.

Plan is a road/long weekend trip to Charleston soon maybe even this summer. She has family out in AZ, maybe we can drop by for a long weekend or something out there. The only downside is that it is a lot further. Charleston at least is reasonable to boogie up home for a few days in a car, where as Arizona takes flights and planning well in advance. So that's at least something I'm considering on all this.

Thanks!

 

SC might be right up your alley then. Lots of suburbs outside the cities that have some space and are nice. Have heard nothing but great things about Charleston and other areas there.

 

I think @scottalot is from around there.

 

I have a buddy that moved to Hickory in NC from up here , he loves it just had a kid with nice southern gal , nice cabin style house cheap mortgage , hes in medical/nursing field so he could make good money anywhere. gonna take tacoma down there soon

 

Charleston keeps getting more and more companies building facilities there. Boeing, BMW, Mercedes, Bosch, Lockheed, and a few others are there. Mt. Pleasant is a but pricey to live in, but you're not far from Awendaw and Francis Marion National Forest. I go down there every year

 

i moved from ri to charlotte back in 2005. only reason i came back was i got a scholarship to grad school. otherwise i had never planed on coming back. i'd prefer not to die up here

 

Sweet deal. Definitely prioritizing a road trip to SC soon then.

 

went to the auto show yesterday.......list of wife's next possible cars

Highlander
Rav4
Camry
used E350 Wagon <333

She surprisingly like the 4Runner, but thing is soo dated its not on my list and also like the Armada but didn't think she would like parking it at school, so her getting a possible tow vehicle is out. She also liked the new Explorer but I'd prefer to stay with brands I know. Plus me love some wagon action.

 

I wouldn't buy a nissan for daily driving if my life depended on it. I thought Toyota frames rusted bad.. nissan's just rust in general. We had brand new GTR's coming in with rust issues...

 

thats bloody insane!!!! My 03 altima for some reason was a champ. no rust issues and i beat the piss out of it. only common issue was crank and cam sensor

 

Phoenix is a big city (5th largest in the US) but there's still plenty of "middle of nowhere" desert with new factories going up all the time, and they're within commuting distance (or they'd never get anyone to work there). Some electric car company just broke ground on a new plant outside of town. There's also Honeywell down by the airport as well as a huge American Airlines hub. And Luke AFB with it's associated contractor operations out on the west side.

At the end of my street is a mountain. It's a city park with plenty of trails. Everyone in the neighborhood takes their dogs up there, but it's big enough that you never see more than 1 or 2 other people, if that. Within a couple miles are two other even larger mountain parks.

Downtown has the big city feel with high-rises and museums and theaters and fancy restaurants and clubs, but most of the residential areas have a suburban feel. You're still never more than a mile or so from the nearest supermarket, or Home Depot, or anything else you could ever need. And to get away for some alone time, there are plenty of mountain / wilderness areas in the city.

So let's talk cost of living... I lived outside Boston in a 2 bed / 1 bath 900 sqft house on a 5000 sqft lot. I traded even-up for 4 bed / 3 bath 3000 sqft on an 11000 sqft lot with a pool and mature landscaping - citrus trees, plenty of flowering shrubs, flowering cacti, shade trees over the front courtyard, and a built-in watering system for it all. Property tax in MA was around $6500. Here it's $3500 on 3 times the house. Registration, insurance, and excise tax on our cars was about half what it was in MA. Groceries are about 20% cheaper (intense competition between grocery chains). A few things cost more, but you still come out way ahead.

If you want to get away for the weekend, there's plenty nearby. If you miss trees, there are forests within an hour's drive. Want winter activities? Ski areas within 2 -3 hours. Rocky Mountains not much farther than that. Lakes and rivers for boating. National parks and forests galore. Or just stay down in the desert warmth and look up at the snow on the mountain tops (where it belongs). Want the ocean? Beaches in SoCal about 6 hours. Mexican beaches even closer. 4hrs to Vegas for bright lights and entertainment.

It's not for everyone, but if you haven't been, it's probably worth a look.

 

Something of value to watch.
https://youtu.be/q3_2R5bmFbk

 

I would love a GTR as a daily driver in the good weather months. That's still one of my favorite cars.

 

Sold - we'll definitely make the trip before we pull the cord and make the big move.

 

For us it was all about escaping the cold and bad weather. Not being able to go out for a walk because the sidewalks are icy. An extra hour to get anywhere on crappy, slushy, potholed roads. Rust on everything. Then, when it finally warms up, it's so humid you come out of the shower all sweaty (another reason to avoid the Southeast). Only a few months a year to do gardening and enjoy the yard.

It can be tough to leave friends and family behind, but if you've decided that cold and snow aren't for you and are committed to making a move, wherever you end up you'll enjoy life a lot more.

If you do come out send me a message and I'll help you plan an itinerary or anything else you might need.